Israel-US crisis over warplane project

Israel and the United States are locked in disagreement over the warplane of the future,the F-35 which is pictured here this handout photo, after Washington refused to let Israel upgrade the aircraft with its own technology, a report said.(AFP/HO-Lockhead Martin)

May 22,2006

Yahoo News

JERUSALEM (AFP) - Israel and the United States are locked in disagreement over the warplane of the future after Washington refused to let Israel upgrade the aircraft with its own technology, a report said.

The United States is refusing to allow Israel to install any more advanced systems in their batch of the F-35 planes -- no navigation, sighting or fire control systems, or Israeli-developed missiles, the Maariv newspaper reported.

The disagreement could deal a huge blow to military hardware manufacturers Israel Aircraft Industries and Israel Military Industries, as well diminish the qualitative advantage of the air force over its regional rivals.

Other countries involved in developing the new F-35 generation fighter jet are also said to be annoyed by the new US policy of selling the plane as a finished product with no-one allowed to install foreign components.

Last year, the Pentagon announced it was denying Israel access to some technology and information about the development of the Joint Strike Fighter because of concerns that the intelligence could be leaked to third countries.

The United States also initially froze Israeli participation in work to develop the F-35, furious over an Israeli sale of sensitive military technology and equipment to China.

Israel, which receives 2.2 billion dollars in US military aid to buy US defence equipment, has little room to manoeuvre when it comes to arms deals, despite some domestic calls to show independence from Washington.

The project to develop the F-35, expected to cost 100 million dollars each, involves seven countries including Israel as a junior partner. The jets are expected to replace Israel's F-16s which have been in service for 30 years.

Link:

U.S., Israel spar over JSF purchase